I had to work this morning, so now my weekend has officially started. I had to pick up a prescription after work (another round of antibiotics), and on Friday I was in such a rush to get to work that I forgot my lunch Oh well . . . Other than that things are pretty uneventful, not many weekend plans.

A few weeks ago I switched my credit card to a rewards card (Chase VISA). I've been writing down all my transactions as if I was spending money out of my checking account in order to try and prevent a shock at the end of the month. Also, I've already done one payment online for some of the purchases, and plan on doing another this weekend. I'm excited to see my rewards

Spending:

11/18
$8 lunch

11/19
$10 prescription


-$32.39 in budget (new goal: stay within $40)

So, I realized I didn't enter my break down of last months spending I've been working on keeping spending in categories from "All Your Worth" - must haves, wants, save. I decided since paying down my loans is a big motivation right now, I would strive for 50% "must haves" but switch the percentages for "wants" and "save" so that I have "save" at 30% and "wants" at 20% This is my breakdown for the two paychecks in October . . .
(since I get paid every two weeks, some of this spending was actually in November, which was why I forgot to post the updated numbers)

Must Haves:

525.00 Rent
10.28 Phone Bill
157.63 Minimum Loan Payments
82.54 Groceries
33.52 Electricity

808.97 or 46% total (goal: no more than 50%) - yeah!! under in this category

Save:

66.39 Short-Term Save
450.00 Extra Student Loan Payments

516.39 or 30% total (goal: 30%) - right on in this one

Wants:

44.38 Coffee/Snacks at Work
143.29 Cigarettes (yeah, I know, bad)
96.18 Misc
87.27 Eating Out
28.21 Cable Internet (I consider this a "want" not a "need")
21.32 Entertainment

420.65 or 24% total (goal: 20%) - over in this section, need to work on that, close though

--------------------
Spending:

$15 cigarettes
$9.23 drug store (should have been prepared with supplies this time of month, instead I had to stop by the drug store while at work, oh well)

-14.29 in budget
(new budget goal: to stay within $40 under and offset with next paycheck)

Today was pretty uneventful, although long. I had a staff meeting at work, so I was there from 8:30am til 7pm (which means I was away from home from 7:50 - 7:30 with bus times). Now I'm tired, and I think I'll just indulge in a little t.v. watching. It was a no spend day, which was good. Brought my lunch (like always) and resisted the temptation of buying an afternoon coffee. I ended up just snacking on a granola bar I brought from home to satisfy that 3 o'clock craving for sugar.

I checked with my boyfriend about my entertaining difficulty buying ground sausage. Apparently I was in the wrong meat section! Sheesh. I was looking near the beef and breakfast sausages. Down the aisle by bacon and hotdogs I guess they have a section of ground sausage that is - as my boyfriend describes it - 'spicy.' Oh well, he was happy enough with it, but now I know where to look. He found the whole thing kind of amusing. Figures, send a vegetarian to buy 'ground sausage' and who knows what you might get

As far as my whole over budget problems, I think I'm going to shoot for staying within $40 of my normal limit. I'll just subtract $40 from my spending limit next paycheck to make up for it (basically just include $40 of my Costco grocery purchases on NEXT paychecks budget). I should be able to stay on budget for the month as a whole without a problem, and I'll try to keep spending to a minimum until next paycheck.

Spending:

Nothing. Nada.

$9.94 left in budget.

It's been a rough couple days for the budget. Actually to keep things positive, it was really the stock up trip to Costco that made things all crazy. I now have $9.94 until next payday (11/25) if I want to stay within my spending plan for this paycheck. That's not going to happen. I should be good on groceries, but $10 for 9 days?! I don't think that'll work out very well.

I'll take a look at it, really I should probably break up the $145 spent at Costco over this paycheck and next paycheck. If I put say $40 or $50 of the Costco grocery spending on NEXT paycheck's budget I should be able to stay on budget for the month overall and have more then $10

Anyway, spending for today was pretty light. I had to go get a prescription filled, and while I was waiting I picked up a couple things on my grocery list. It's crazy, I've never thought to buy canned foods at a drug store. I needed to get diced tomatoes for pasta sauce tonight, and it was on sale for $0.89 a can (from $1.39). I picked up four since this is generally a staple type product for us. I felt even better about my purchase when I checked the price at the grocery store. They had it on sale too, but for $1.00 a can. Who knew drug stores had good sales on food? I also picked up a couple bags of chocolate chips (my favorite brand, and my boyfriend's favorite type of cookie), which were on sale for $1.50 from $2.59 and some more rolled gauze (seriously, bandaging between your toes is crazy hard).

Grocery shopping was pretty uneventful, just some veggies for a couple planned pasta dishes - things we don't buy at Costco since the quantity would go to waste. My spending would have been a lot better, but I had problems with the ground sausage. I checked with my boyfriend this morning to see what kind of meat he wanted in his half of the sauce (I don't eat meat), and he said to pick up ground sausage. No problem I think, I can do that, it's not like I'm choosing a cut of meat. Ugh! It was actually pretty comic, there I was with my basket of veggies trying to determine if there was a difference between "ground beef" and "ground sausage"!! I finally got the one thing I could find that actually said "ground sausage" - made from pork, I guess maybe that's the difference - but it was $6.50!! For a little tray! I'll have to consult with my boyfriend this evening and figure out if I even bought the right thing.

Wow, that was a long post. Anyway, here's the spending breakdown:

11/15:

$17.81 grocery store
$10.00 prescription
$11.49 drug store

11/14

$15 cigarettes
$4 coffee

11/13

$23.18 phone bill


$9.94 left in budget

Not much going on this weekend, yesterday was a no spend day That's two in a row, mainly just 'cause I was lazy and read my book

We have plans to head to Costco later today, so we'll see how that goes. We've made a list, and generally are pretty good at sticking to it, but we need a few things that are going to be a bit more expensive.

I'll also check and see if there's anything for Christmas gifts. I should have a pretty inexpensive Christmas, although I don't know what I'm going to get for my boyfriend yet. Extended family is getting cards, which is the norm in my family. We generally get together around the holidays, but since all the cousins are grown and only a couple of my cousins have young kids most presents are small. I'm actually not going to be able to see my family this holiday season. I couldn't get both Thanksgiving and Christmas off from work, and we're planning on heading to my boyfriend's family for Christmas - it's their turn, we're all about rotating that kind of thing That means that we'll have to find something for his parents and sister, which could be interesting.

edit:

Back from Costco, umm yeah. We stuck to our list (except for buying some frozen shrimp), but Coscto runs always seem so large. Afterwards I always have to remind myself that I'll only need to do minimal perishable type grocery shopping for at least 3 weeks or so - and we have basics like pasta/cheese/baking goods that will last much longer. Since there's two of us, we always are very careful with buying in bulk . . . We can only eat so much food. So, we primarily stocked up on non-perishables and things that we could freeze or use quickly.

spending:

$145 groceries at Costco
$13.58 cigarettes

$91.42 left in budget or $8.31 per day (til 11/25)

Just an update from earlier. I had the day off and kind of lazed about for the day. Read a bit, and did some financial record keeping (figuring new budget and whatnot)

My boyfriend was so cute today. He called on his way home to see what I wanted for dinner (we REALLY need to go grocery shopping, we just have odds and ends). I hadn't thought about it, so he just picked out what he wanted. He came home with a bottle of wine, and made italian from scratch (tortillini in alfredo sauce, yum!). Really cute, and he was proud of himself for picking a good wine

He paid for groceries, so it was a no spend day for me. I paid for groceries last time, and we generally just rotate grocery purchases (or go together and split it).

Yeah! I have a three day weekend

I figured out how I'm going to pay back my emergency fund. This month I won't put any extra on my debt (normally I put $450), and in December I'll pay $238 extra on student loans and put the rest towards my emergency fund. That will bring it back up to $1100 by the end of December, and will only push back the pay off of my two private loans to May 2006 and October 2006 (instead of April and September).

I feel better about the whole thing. If I work overtime or get any extra bonus amounts, I'll put that on the loans to see if I can bring the payoffs back to April and September.



I was paid yesterday, here's the spending break down:

$104.19 to S/T Save (balance: $490, at goal for X-mas/dentist appointment expenses)
$93.59 to Emergency Fund (left to pay back: 501.37)
$262.50 half of rent for December
$100 Private Loans (minimum due)

$250 spending budget from 11/10-11/24

So, the good news first. The book I bought yesterday was 30% off. Which means it came in at $21.32. I was very excited . . .

The bad news is, I checked online to see how much my urgent care visit is going to cost me. Umm, yeah, I guess I didn't take into account my high deductible ($1,000), so total bill will be $594.96!! Ugh! Well, I guess that's what an emergency fund is for, but still. Almost $600 just because I had a spider bite and crazy puffy toes and couldn't get in anywhere else

In my annoyance about the cost, I ran some numbers to figure out if I would have been better off with a lower deductible. I have a choice of three deductibles - 250, 500, 1000. The $1000 deductible plan costs $109 for the
whole year ("Preventive care" visits don't count towards the deductible, you just have a co-pay - which is why I haven't paid any of my deductibe until this urgent care visit). The $500 deductible plan is almost $794 a year. So it actually works out that I would have spent more money if I was on the lower deductible plan. It would have cost me $794 pre tax, plus $500 to cover my deductible. Instead I paid $109 pre tax, and $594 towards my deductible. That made me feel a bit better, it's just a pretty big hit to all come at once.

Besides the fact that I have to pay $600, I now have to decide how I'm going to go about building back up my emergency fund (which was at $1100 before this). Right now I put almost everything beyond my living expenses towards my student loan debt. I'll have to decide how I want to cut that back in order to build up my emergency fund again.



Spending:

$21.32 book
$4 coffee at work (11/9)
$5 lunch at work (11/8)

0.92 under budget - I get paid tomorrow, I'll update with the new numbers then

Things are going well here. Spent a little yesterday at the drug store - I still needed to stock up on some toiletries type stuff - hair stuff and whatnot. I thought I was going to come in way under my spending plan, but it seems I should be right about on.

I have about thirty dollars left, but I have plans to buy a new book today. Normally I would just wait until a book is available at the library, but my boyfriend and I have both been waiting for this next installment in a series so I decided to go ahead and buy it when it comes out. It was pretty entertaining when my BF and I were deciding who gets to read it first. We were trying to work out having me read it at work and he could read while at home. It felt like we were negotiating for child custody or something The weekends were the sticky point so we finally decided it would just be easier for me to get the first crack at it. We'll see how that goes though, since last time I bought a book that both of us were waiting for he ended up reading it before I did

I'll update once I know how much it is, I have a 25% off coupon so that should help.

Spending:

9.55 drug store

$31.24 left in 10/31 - 11/10 budget (10.41 per day)

Overall I had a nice weekend. Saturday night my boyfriend and I decided to go out to dinner. We planned on going to the Pho place (Vietnamese noodle soup, really good and inexpensive), but of course we were dorks and went after they had closed. Instead we walked to the Thai restaurant a couple blocks away. It ended up being at least double what we would normally spend at Pho, but we both had leftovers for lunch today.

I made quiche today, but as I was getting ready to fill them I realized I didn't have enough eggs. So, another grocery store trip. It actually worked out alright since I didn't realize we were getting low on some other things too (coffee, milk, basics like that). The quiche turned out great, and will be dinner for the next couple days.

I don't know if I just haven't noticed before, but it seems like coffee bean prices have gone up. Although, I haven't bought coffee in a while since we've been working on a big bag from Costco. We grind our own, and generally get the less expensive brands. Even Millstone was 10.50 a pound! Normally it's more in the 7 or 8 dollar range. I got the store brand, which is fine since we've had this particular store brand before, but sheesh! Even the store brand was 7.50/lb.

Spending:

$33.27 dinner out
$11.52 cigarettes
$18.75 grocery store

$36.79 left in budget til 11/10 ($10.20 per day)

So far I'm doing well on my spending plan. I had to go by the drug store to pick up a few things (face wash and some other bathroom stuff I had been putting off buying), and I bought coffee at work on Thursday. Other than that, I haven't spent any money in the last few days. I'm actually on track to stay below my spending limit. I'm proud of myself, but I can't really say I was trying THAT hard. Just kind of being careful where the money went

Also, my last student loan payments finally posted. I'm doing a "debt snowball" plan, so the first private loan is getting all the extra payments right now. It's so exciting to see the balance going down!! My 401K is getting up there as well - I contribute 5% of my wage. The first half of the year it was more around 3%, but I bumped it up to get the full company match.

Debt Update:

$2962: Private Loan 1 (480 principal reduction since 10/14!!)
$3380: Private Loan 2 (32 princ. reduction)
$8460: Government Loan (same balance, payment will post 11/7)

Savings Update:

$1108: Emergency/Long Term Savings (just some interest added)
$416: Short Term Savings
$2017: 401K ($277 added)


------------------------------
Spending:

$15.97 drug store
$4 coffee at work

$104.33 left in budget ($17.39 per day)

Today was pretty uneventful. Went to work, came home, did laundry, ate dinner . . . you know, just an average day.

I'm trying to think of something I want to treat myself to for one of my November goals. I think I may look around and see if there are any nice winter coats (with a hood! sheesh, I really should have a coat with a hood in Seattle). I still have a gift card from Banana Republic, so maybe I'll check there. Problem is I always talk myself out of purchases - you'd think this wouldn't be a problem, but I do it even for things I actually really need. I mean seriously you should see my winter coat, ugh! It barely even qualifies for that name -- it's not really warm, it doesn't hold up to Seattle rain, and I've owned it since I was in high school!

That's why I'm making this a goal, I will allow myself to make a purchase for myself . . . .


Spending and Savings:

$15 cigarettes

$123.30 left in budget ($15.53 per day)

So, I had a realization about my goals. I realized that I'm not a good budgeter. I don't mean that in the sense that I go over the amount that I have to spend, but in the sense that I just can't seem to say groceries will be X amount and nothing over that. I think I need to step back from the mentality of setting a dollar figure to every little small expense and realize how much progress I've made. I need to just allow myself to track expenses, keep expenses down, and continue to pay off my student loans and save money.

I feel really good about this new idea, I'm much better at the big picture anyway It's not like I spend on frivelous things, I just don't want to make myself worry about each little small expense, you know? I've spent so long worrying about just living expenses . . . now that I actually have SOME disposable income I still live in the mentality of pay check to paycheck. Which is great, because I automatically budget myself, but I need to stop worrying about the small stuff and see the bigger savings goals.

I guess this seems like kind of a small idea change - and maybe a bit crazy - but it is kind of a big mentality change from the goals I was trying to reach. I don't want to be a yo yo budgeter, always going on and off budget. I just want to have a lifelong spending/savings goal and plan. I guess I'm not articulating this very well, sheesh . . . and I always seem to make these posts so long . . .

Well to wrap things up, my new updated goals for November . . .



- Stay within my budget for everyday expenses Try to cut where possible.

- Put $450 extra towards student loans to stay on track for 4/2006 and 9/2006 payoff.

- Put additional needed to make short term savings goal (about $75)

- Allow my crazy budgeting/limiting of spending self to make at least one purchase on myself (not something I HAVE to buy, just something I want)

I seriously can't remember the last time I allowed myself to make a purchase just because I wanted something. Sometimes you just have to splurge

So, I feel like the weekend ended up being expensive. Really though, once I look at the numbers it wasn't too bad. We went and saw Wallace and Gromit, did a bit of grocery shopping, and otherwise just hung out We did go out to eat after the movie, which I paid for -- but my boyfriend will pay next time (that's generally how we split things like that). Plus $12 for dinner out is not really crazy expensive, just unplanned

In good news, I checked my 401K and it's almost up to $2,000!! I love milestones like that, because it makes the little bits seem worthwhile. Also my short term savings is up to right about goal for Christmas spending (travel and gifts), my ER bill (still don't know how much that'll be, but I'm budgeting $100), and my final dentist appointment for the year ($90). I haven't added to my long term savings with Emigrant Direct, but right now I'm concentrating on paying off my student loans (or at least the private ones) in 2006. So far that's on target too.

Goals for November:

- Continue to stay in budget, and try to come in below I really need to work on breaking down my budget in November and lowering costs. It's just hard to see where to lower without always staying home (my entertainment budget is not huge, but I do go out on occassion). I need to look at the small expenses (like coffee at work) and lower those. It's all about willpower sometimes.

- Put $450 extra towards student loans

- Put additional needed to make short term savings goal (about $75)

--------
Spending update:

3.90 drug store (toiletries)
8.00 movie out
16.00 dinner out
2.00 coffee at work 11/1
28.31 groceries

138.30 left in budget (15.47 per day)

I haven't had a weekend off in a month, so I'm basking in my laziness today Just kind of puttering around the house, I did put in a load of laundry but that's about all I've officially accomplished. We have plans to go see Wallace and Gromit sometime this weekend, probably tonight. Other than that, it should be an inexpensive weekend.

I got paid on friday, and things are looking good for the next two weeks. I also got my end of the month incentive check, which was higher than expected. The extra went right into savings . . . .

Savings and Spending:

290.00 extra to student loan
57.63 regular student loan payment
262.50 rent (1/2)
67.05 to short term save (total: 416.81 woo hoo!)

------

10.28 phone bill
28.21 internet
15.00 cigarettes

196.51 left in budget (15.11 per day)

goal: no more than 17.86 per day

I'm within my budget this pay check, but I decided to take a look at where it all went 'Cause it's certainly gone now.

Recently, I've been interested in a book called All Your Worth. I think it has an interesting perspective on breaking down the bigger picture. I like the idea of breaking down your finances to 'must haves' (50%), 'savings' (20%), and wants (30%). 30% seems kind of high, but 'wants' is anything you don't need to get by - a cell phone, maybe a second car, cable tv, etc. I still think I'll take a look at it, and maybe shoot for a 50 'must haves', 30 'savings', 20 'wants' break down. Here is my break down of the past two weeks:


Must Haves:
Rent(1/2)/Electricity: 296.03
Regular Loan payment: 100.00
Groceries: 35.48

431.50 or 53% (goal: 409.92 or 50%)

Save:
extra to student loan: 160.00
short term savings: 30.34

190.34 or 23% (goal: 163.97 or 20%)

Wants:
lunch at work/coffee: 29.38
dinner out: 44.00
other entertainment: 68.87
misc: 53.67

195.92 or 24% (goal: 245.95 or 30%)

I think overall I did pretty well . . . Overall I'm pretty happy . . .

So, things were pretty uneventful all week . . . until Wednesday. I noticed a spider bite on my foot, I didn't actually see the spider but it was some kind of bug bite. It didn't really itch, and wasn't swollen so I just went about my day. Thursday I woke up to puffy and pink toes! I couldn't really walk very well because my toes were so swollen. I ended up going to work anyway, and trying to make a same day doctor's appointment (which was a joke). At about 1 o'clock I realized I wasn't going to get in anywhere, and since the swelling hadn't gone down, I decided to just go to urgent care. Well, my boss didn't like the idea of me leaving early, until I offered to show her my puffy foot. Then she decided that leaving a bit early was okay.

I made it to urgent care, they had me wait and looked at my foot for all of five minutes. I got a prescription for anti-biotics (with the warning that if I break out in hives, come back in right away) and a tetnus (sp?) booster. They told me to cover the bite for a couple of days. I went and filled my prescription and got gauze pads and paper tape so I could rig up some sort of bandage for between my toes (incredibly difficult and kinda funny).

Between the prescription, and a going away party on friday (along with another trip to the grocery store) I've pretty much used my budget until next payday. I'm not sure what the bill for the urgent care visit will be like, it's an in-network hospital though so hopefully that will help. At least my foot is a lot less pink and puffy now

Savings and Spending:

$10 prescription
$35 going away dinner (for old boss)
$4 coffee on Thursday and Friday
$10 tape/gauze pads/ snack while waiting for prescription
$5 grocery store (milk and snacks)
$15 cigarettes

$23 left in budget

Today was fairly uneventful, I was in training all day. You know, group cheers and whatnot. I don't really enjoy training very much.

Once I got home, I went to check my account online to see if my student loans payment had posted. Surprise, surprise! I had a debit transaction double post! How annoying . . . well kind of annoying. I actually work at the bank that my checking account is at, so I just have to have one of my co-workers fill out a form for me and email it in . . . I can't do it myself -- that whole no transactions/maintenance on your own account thing. The money should be back within a couple days, I just hope the fraud deparment doesn't close my card. Sometimes they won't if it's just a posting error, but if they can see that the second posting of the charge was done by actually entering the card number they'll close it out. Which I guess is a good idea in that case.

I don't really get it though, was at a restaurant and the correct amount went thru (29.00) and then the incorrect amount (29.25). Maybe the person who took my slip entered the wrong amount for tip (hence the extra 0.25) at first and instead of correcting it accidently double posted it. I'll have to check the time stamp tomorrow at work and see which transaction actually posted first.

Other than that little surprise, things were quiet today. Spent $2 on a candy bar and soda while in training. I REALLY felt the need for sugar, and they didn't let us have a lunch. I guess we were only planning to be there for 5 hours, but we went for about 6. Not fun . . . .

Savings and Spending:

$2 candy/soda


$102 left in budget

This weekend, and the start of the week was good and bad (financially anyway). I went grocery shopping - spent $36.00 - everything I bought should cover for at least a week and a half, so that's good. Saturday night my boyfriend and I went out (we have been hermets lately). Not an entirely good thing for the budget, but I should still be on track as long as I reign in spending on snacks/coffee while at work. I don't know if it's the change in weather, but the last couple weeks I've gotten back into a habit of getting coffee at work. Rainy days, and dark mornings just make an afternoon coffee seem like a good idea

Other than that, things have been pretty mellow. I put a couple books on hold at the library, but I'm not sure when they'll be available. Did laundry, and cleaned up around the house. I paid my regular payment on my student loan, and am still waiting for the extra payment I made to go through.

I made a double batch of black bean and corn chowder for dinner tonight, and lunches for the week. I bought the makings for lentil soup too, but I realized that I don't have enough containers to freeze the lentil soup individually (the chowder is in individual containers and ready for lunches). So I just cut up all the veggies for soup, and will make it later on in the week.

Savings and Spending:

$100 student loan payment (in budget seperate from 'spending money')
$36 groceries
$29 dinner/drinks
$15 cigarettes

$105 left in budget

All in all a good day so far. Went to work, spent money on coffee (my bad), came home and started paying bills. Extra on student loan, check. Electricity bill, check.

I put some extra into savings. I decided the little amount of money in my bank savings account is for Christmas and my next dentist bill. So far I have $275 for Christmas, which should just cover my plane ticket to BF's parents. Now, to save for gifts I also have the $90 covered for my next dentist cleaning (I'm over my plan limit, but would rather just stay on a cleaning schedule than wait for the new year).

I also paid off my Amazon purchase on my CC ($14.75). Kind of expensive for one book, but it's my sister's book so I figure it's worth it

Savings and Spending so far:

$50.00 (save)
$160.00 (debt payment)
$67.27 (electricity bill/coffee/book)

$185 left in budget

Since I have today off, I've been going over my budget for my next paycheck. I get paid every other week, with a small bonus check at the end of the month (generally around $100). I've been using an excel spreadsheet to track my budget and various debts/assets for a couple of months now. I find it helpful to write down what I'm spending on everything, and then track different categories.

My general budget includes loan payments, rent, and "spending." I tend to have a problem with my spending category. Right now that includes all utilities, groceries, entertainment, and other expenses. I have a hard time breaking it down in my actual budget. I know what I generally spend each month on different categories, but I seem to have problems trying to fix the amounts in my budget. I always seem to go over in one category, like groceries, and under in another. I've been good at not going over my budget for "spending" but I've been trying to work on being more specific in my budget. For now, I'm trying to track different categories and see how much I spend on each.

This is an example from my budget for this coming paycheck (tomorrow, woo hoo!):

Budget: $820 (for two weeks)

262.50 rent (1/2 for next month)
100.00 regular student loan payment
160.00 extra student loan payment
250.00 spending
48.00 savings

Any information you guys have about how you break up your budget would be helpful.

Overall I'm feeling pretty happy about the next few weeks. I have to pay the electricity bill, but other than that I shouldn't have any utility bills coming in. I'm making a larger payment on my student loans, which I'm very happy about. I'm just wondering how to break down my categories more. It would be nice to say, $$ for groceries - $$ for utilities etc. I guess I'm just not quite there yet. Oh well . . .

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*edit* my total debt/savings break down:

Total Debt:
$3443.00: private student loan 1
$3413.00: private student loan 2
$8460.00: government student loan

Total Savings:
$1105.00: emergency fund
$366.00: regular savings
$1740.00: 401k

Hi everyone . . . I've been checking out this forum for a while and decided to finally register and post

I'm currently working on my finances and budgeting. Over the last few months Ive been working out my budget, and seem to have been somewhat successful on getting my finances in order.

My main goal is to pay off those pesky student loans Right now, I have 16,000 in student loan debt to be paid off. I don't have any credit card balances.

Really, I'm trying to work on my financial peace of mind. I've saved up a bit of an emergency fund and am contributing to my 401K. I would like to pay off my loans, and work on a down payment on a house.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself. I should hopefully be posting more in the future

Goals:

Pay off student loans starting with private loans (7K) and then government loans (8K).

Continue 401K contributions, and either increase percentage contributed or start an IRA in 2006.

Continue working on "emergency fund" and cushion in regular bank account (for those small, but non emergency expenses like doctor/dentist etc).

Save for a down payment on a house.

Met goals:

Make a budget I can keep to in a month - somewhat met

Hit $1,000 in emergency fund and set up a higher earning account than a regular bank savings (go Emigrant Direct!)

Pay at least 150 extra on student loans each month.